Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Well, to start with, you're using the word "culture" in a way that is completely divorced from the way the rest of us educated, English-speaking people use it -- indeed, in a way that kinda sorta misses the point of my original post. I believe you understand this, on some level.
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Ty – you are claiming that the words you were using had a different definition than the definition you know and I know you were using. Here is what happened.
Originally posted by Spanky
A moral relativist might say that in Arab countrys these rights are not part of their culture so it is both arrogant and naive to think that we can impose a system to protect these rights. Hello Ty.
Then You said:
Ty might say that you shouldn't try to haphazardly change a culture, since government doesn't do that well. You might call this the "conservative" position.
Then Bilmore said:
The people at Treblinka were happy for a less- than-perfect result. So, apparently, were many Iraqis.
Bilmores comment made perfect sense considering the initial comment. The discussion was that since rights and such were not respected by a culture it would be naive to try and impose such concepts on a culture that did not respect them. You said that government should not try to haphazardly change a culture ( a culture that does not respect rights and democracy).
Bilmore pointed out that we changed the culture of Treblinka (we imposed our ideas of freedeom and individual rights on a culture where such rights were not respected – in Treblinka) and it seemed to work out OK. Logical retort.
Then you say: It's uncanny, the way that you intuited that when I was referring to "changing a culture," I really meant "stopping a Treblinka." Wow.
Actually, Bilmore’s conclusion made perfect sense.. If it not OK to try and change the Iraqi culture so it respects human rights, why would it be so crazy to change the culture of Trebllinka, where there were no respect for human rights. .
Then you said: If you seriously think that my reference to changing culture meant that I would oppose liberating Treblinka, you should go back for remedial kindergarten.
I guess I need to go there to, because if you don’t think government can do a good job of changing culture in other countrys, then the US should not have been able to do a good job of changing the culture at Treblinka. Or changing the culture of the country that created Treblinka.
The term culture in this whole exchange referred to a people in a certain geographic areas respect for individual liberties and human rights. The culture in Treblinka did not respect such rights. Don’t try and pretend that when you were discussing culture you were referring to style of dress and celebration rituals.
